Speech of the Taoiseach, Ireland Funds Young Leadership Series

Issued by the Government Press Office

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Ladies and gentlemen, friends, it is a pleasure to be here this evening and to have been chosen to speak at your Global Leaders series.

My thanks to Ryan for chairing tonight’s event. Ryan, you have never been afraid to take risks to help change society for the better, and I want to thank you for that.

I also want to acknowledge the work of the Rev. Bill Shaw, an unsung hero who has helped transform lives in so many ways, especially by building leadership skills. Thank you Bill.

We all know the value of the work of The Ireland Funds, building links between communities and providing opportunities.

Like some of you, I benefited from the Washington Ireland Programme, in my case almost 20 years ago. It was an experience that taught me a lot about myself and other people.

Today I get to return to Washington as Taoiseach.

When I visited Capitol Hill in March, Speaker Pelosi offered to have one of her aides give me a tour of the building.

I told her:

‘Madam Speaker, I used to give that tour’.

Politics has been called the science of everything and the art of the possible. And that’s true. But being a politician requires you to believe in the impossible. The Berlin Wall can fall. Apartheid was defeated. And new nations are born.

The challenges we face – in Northern Ireland, on our island, on our planet – can sometimes seem enormous and insurmountable.

We can’t rely on other people to solve them for us.

We are all responsible for the kind of society we live in, the kind of country we have. It’s up to us to make sure it reflects our hopes, our dreams and our values.

Dreams die in the darkness. They are killed by apathy, by people not caring, by people who give up, by people who leave decisions to others until it’s too late.

Democracy gives us freedom but it also brings with it responsibilities. It means if you don’t like something, you can’t sit back and hope someone else will change it for you. You have to speak up - you have to speak out - you have to vote.

And if there is no one to vote for that you like, then maybe you have to run for office yourself.

Sometimes people are afraid to put themselves forward. They don’t think they are smart enough, or good enough, or they think others will do a better job and then are disappointed when they don’t.

I remember the first time I ran for election. I lost.

It was for the local council and I received 380 votes – one of the lowest votes in the country for my party. I will never forget it.

However, I learned more from that campaign and that defeat than I did from any of my subsequent victories.

I ran again five years later and this time I received almost 5,000 votes, the highest in the country.

There is no shame in defeat provided you learn from it.

Fail but fail forward.

True failure is giving up. Failure is saying it’s someone else’s problem.

Our island has had too much of those kinds of failures. It’s time for new thinking and it’s time for more self-belief.

In my career I have taken risk and I have made mistakes. I have learned from those mistakes, and I think they have helped make me a better politician.

Leadership is about taking calculated risks.

So, this evening I want to share with you three lessons I have learned about politics over my career, and especially in my two years as Taoiseach.

The first is that you have to believe in the impossible. Every time a new idea is presented there is always someone who says: we can’t do it, it would be too difficult, it will cost too much, you’ll never see it through, it’s impossible.

Sometimes they are right, but more often they are not.

Everything is impossible, until it happens for the first time.

When Senator George Mitchell arrived in Northern Ireland in the 1990s he was welcomed. People would thank him on the streets for trying to help.

But they also told him he was wasting his time. They said: ‘our people have been killing each other for centuries, and we will keep on killing each other forever’.

Peace, after seven centuries of conflict, was the impossible dream.

It became a reality.

When I was growing up, Ireland was a very different place. Divorce was unconstitutional, homosexuality was illegal, women held few positions of power or wealth, and it was a much colder place for people who looked different, or who thought differently from the mainstream.

We didn’t have visible walls between our communities, but they were there all the same.

My story would have been impossible in that Ireland.

Change came not because one person led the way, but because new generations insisted on doing things differently. Closed minds were opened as people shared their experiences and their stories.

Linkages were built across the generations and across our country, urban and rural.

We were honest about who we were, our differences, our failings and our imperfections.

And we discovered that our empathy was greater than our prejudices.

The second lesson is that leadership is about providing hope.

Take climate change. It is one of the biggest challenges our planet is facing. A global threat, and one that affects us all.

I know that your generation feels it particularly, the realisation that the planet is facing a possible climate apocalypse and that it might be too late to save it.

So leadership is required to take climate action. And I believe leadership is also required to convince people that it is not too late to act. We can stop climate change and still protect our way of life, our economic and political systems.

The destruction of our planet doesn’t have to happen. It’s not inevitable. It can be stopped.

Action can be taken, and it is up to international leaders to take it, and for communities to demand it, and for individuals to act.

Our ambitions have to be both domestic and international. At home, we need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to help stabilise the climate for future generations. It’s also about cleaner air, warmer homes and creating the jobs and businesses of the future, embracing climate opportunities to create new wealth.

Internationally we need to work with others, particularly developing countries.

The world’s least developed countries are bearing the brunt of profound climate-related changes: desertification, more frequent extreme weather, and flooding. This is resulting in displaced populations, economic and social disruption.

So we need to take action and we will.

The third lesson is that you need to take criticism on board.

Sometimes the criticism is justified, and you need to hear it even if you don’t want to at first. It’s particularly valid when it comes from people who support you, and want you and the country to do well.

Of course, sometimes it’s ridiculous, and you need to brush it off. Recently I read an article condemning my approach to Brexit based largely on a meeting that never happened, and calling me ‘Lenny Verruca’. It was not, perhaps, the most sophisticated commentary!

Criticism cannot deflect you from doing what you believe is the right course of action. Leadership means sometimes doing things knowing they will be heavily criticised.

We all know that Brexit poses an incredible set of challenges for all of us on this island.

As Taoiseach I have always attempted to do what is right, conscious of the Irish Government’s role as co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement. Conscious too of the continuing absence of a Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly.

In this time of crisis, Northern Ireland needs its own voice.

Our history shows how change is possible.

Civic society persuaded political leaders to take courageous steps towards change. From the Peace People movement to the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition, from the Corrymeela Community to the thousands of men and women who live the message of peace and reconciliation every day in their local communities.

Building links between communities is the best way of lowering barriers.

Ladies and gentlemen, when I was travelling to Belfast, someone suggested that my speech to you this evening could be a rallying cry for a new generation of political leaders.

I said No.

Tomorrow’s leaders don’t need to hear words from me to be inspired. As community workers, as local business leaders, as young professionals, you are already showing what can be achieved.

I’m here to be inspired by you. To see that there is a new generation of students and young people who care deeply about the future of Northern Ireland, the future of Ireland and Europe, and the future of our planet.

Who know the obstacles, who know the barriers, and who are not afraid to try.

Who are willing to make mistakes.

Who look at existing problems and see solutions.

And who believe that change is possible.

That’s your story, and I wish you well in your endeavours.

Thank you.